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The Best Of Your Vintage THON Apparel

In preparation for the massive amount of tutus and themed shirts we always see during THON weekend, we challenged former THON participants to send in their vintage THON attire.

We wanted to see your original shirts, socks, buttons: anything you wore to THON when flower headbands weren’t in style and foam hats were. We got a few interesting submissions, so we put together a collection of your best entries to cap off THON 2017 weekend:

Bill Muse attended Penn State from 1981 to 1986 and later returned to earn his bachelor’s degree in 2002 and his master’s in 2014. He only danced for 36 hours in 1983 and his 1984 weekend landed him on crutches. Luckily, he made it all the way through THON 1985 and was finally able to dance to “Shout” by Otis Day and the Knights. He sent us a picture of him from 1984 in his THON shirt, pleather pants, sunglasses, a tie, and funky hat.

Samantha Dula, middle, graduated in 2015 and participated in THON in both 2013 and 2014. She got her Four Diamonds hat from her roommate when they found it tucked away in the basement of their house. “It is made of foam and when you stick it on your head it turns into a THON 4 Diamond Visor.”

Valerie Hutton of the class of 1984 danced twice in her Penn State career. She’s pictured in the top photo dancing with her partner in the White Building in 1981. Below is the shirt she wore when she danced in her second THON in 1983.

Gary Ezard of the class of 1984 is pictured on the right in the top photo holding onto one of his THON shirts at a viewing event last year. Below are the two shirts he wore when he danced as a junior and senior. “I proudly danced 48 hours twice. 1983 independent, 1984 partially sponsored by South Halls Residence Association, for which I was the rep for my dorm floor, Beaver Hall 4th.”

Karyn Hyland graduated in 1982 and sent in a shirt and a button from THON of the same year.

Honorable Mention: Although it’s not apparel, Amy Singer sent us her THON mug from 1990.

 

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About the Author

Gabriela Stevenson

Gabriela is a senior majoring in print and digital journalism and Onward State's former student life editor. She is from Norristown, PA, which she normally refers to as "30 minutes outside of Philadelphia" (she looked up the exact driving time). She enjoys really enjoys eating cereal at night, in case you were wondering. To contact Gabriela, e-mail her at gabriela@onwardstate.com, or follow her on Twitter @GabiStevenson if you want to feel young again.

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